I found a backdoor into my bed

You can also assign it to the triple click shortcut in Accessibility. You probably can to the double/triple back taps too, though I haven’t tried.

I do use a standalone Lectrofan for sleep as I prefer my noise machine to be across the room and Alexa-controlled (via a smart switch), plus it’s louder and the brown noise is “browner.”

But I keep iOS BG sound mapped to the triple-click shortcut for when noise-cancelling just isn’t enough in loud restaurants etc. It works great with AirPods for reducing my noise sensitivity issues.

It's been life-changing when combined with my AirPods Pro. ANC deadens most sound, but acute sounds still get through. Adding background noise on top of it can usually cover the rest. And they have both bright and dark noise, to cover different frequencies of environmental sounds

:facepalm:

I can't believe I had to download an app for that because the feature is buried in SETTINGS (!!!!). What an obtuse choice. Thanks for the tip though, I hate that my white noise app has a rotating ad banner.

just tried it, that's cool, but in what circumstances "should" i use it?

I use the mynoise.net android app. They changed it a few years ago, not for the better, but it is still servicable.

https://mynoise.net/

Android app: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.pmarks.chromadoze/

by sleep inducer, you mean sleeping pills? Which one in particular?

> In addition to everything else, also love how a bed with the express purpose to increase sleep quality requires you to open your phone every time you want to adjust a setting.

Don't worry, they'll repeat over and over how their product was thoughtfully designed with exquisite craftsmanship by the re-animated corpse of Johnny Ive [1] until people believe it's true.

[1] I know he's not dead.

Also...

> ... Essentially all you need to do is unplug the rubber tubing from the Eight Sleep cover, which is available on eBay for a few hundred bucks, and plug it into a $150 aquarium chiller.

> That’s it. Aquarium chillers are somewhat of a misnomer, as they can also provide heat. They use thermoelectric devices to regulate temperature, either cooling or warming the liquid that flows through them, which is the same technology found in eight sleep.

How much do you want to bet the Eight Sleep is literally an off-the-shelf Chinese Aquarium chiller in a custom case marked up 15x, with a shitily-programmed computer bolted on to enable a $20/month subscription?

I agree with this so much. Opening an app is the last thing I want to do to adjust something while I'm in bed. I have a zigbee lightswitch so I can turn the light off from bed, and sure I could open an app to do that, but it's so much better to get a zigbee button and stick it to the wall above my head and program it to control the lightswitch.

Unlike all the cloud garbage, my zigbee devices continue to function even when the internet is down. I have my zigbee hub (Home Assistant Yellow) on a battery backup, so all the zigbee devices with a battery keep functioning even when the power is out (like my automatic cat feeders)

I’m still fairly upset that ambient devices never really took off. Nanoleaf at least made a remote like this. It’s a dodecahedron with an accelerometer, so you can program each face with a different setting. The simplest being to program opposing faces for two different light levels. You want to take a nap, turn the controller upside down.

And not true, at least for the newest version. V4 has touch sensors for adjusting the temps on the side of the mattress.

I do own of these and while I hate the price, the subscription, the fact that it didn't work for an hour last night due to the internet being down (first time ever really) but there really isn't a better option. I love the temp control and would use anyone else if they had a valid competitor, but sadly there isn't one (or at least wasn't when I bought mine). The alternative is to not have temp control which is pretty amazing.

The newer models have a touch control panel on the side. Different taps to adjust settings.

Not that this ameliorates all the other issues here.

You can buy the new 3249€ Pod4: "Control without a phone" https://www.eightsleep.com/eu/product/pod-cover/

I mean while you are opening your phone you might as well check latest savings by DOGE, wouldn't it help you sleep even more safe and sound?

This all has me quite torn.

The "smart" features on it are genuinely useful for me - I have sleep apnea, as well as an eight sleep + the electronic platform. It automatically changes the elevation of my head based on apnea events, and I see a marked reduction in them when using this feature.

I have a cpap machine that also makes automatic adjustments but I still get noticeably better sleep quality with the eight sleep. I also really enjoy the temperature control, since it saves on HVAC costs vs. climate controlling the whole house. I've not tried an aquarium chiller for this purpose, though I have used one for doing temperature control on a beer fermenter, and I can extrapolate from there that I value the management of the actual eight sleep device vs. managing an aquarium chiller's temp control.

I've also heard people are having excellent sleep in their traditional modern beds. Me included.

The entire "computer" should probably be replaced by an esp32. Upside being that you could flash an esphome config and be free of The Cloud

I love my device...it has profoundly changed my quality of sleep on the same scale that CPAP therapy has.

Seeing the founder fellate Elon and his Doge employees has given me second thoughts. I may be looking for an aquarium chiller in my near future.

ESPHome fills much of this niche for me. It's a framework for turning YAML device definitions into custom microcontroller firmware, with myriad supporting tools. The official device database at https://devices.esphome.io lists 554 devices but that's nowhere near the end of it.

Most manufacturers bolt on IOT functions by dropping an off-the-shelf module onto their device-specific board. It's sometimes possible to replace the factory firmware with ESPHome, sometimes even using over-the-air updates. For example, AirGradient air quality sensors: https://github.com/MallocArray/airgradient_esphome

Even when it isn't possible to commandeer the factory IOT module, the fact that it _is_ a module is still useful, because it's almost always possible to inhibit or remove the factory module and connect your own instead. The factory IOT module controls and senses the device, so your replacement module can too, using the same pins. For example, an IOT air filter: https://github.com/mill1000/esphome-winix-c545#final-assembl...

Some devices are designed around multidrop communication busses. These are usually even easier, since the ability to join the bus is an intended design feature, even if the device you're using is not intended. For example, many Samsung residential HVAC systems: https://github.com/omerfaruk-aran/esphome_samsung_hvac_bus/d...

As an EE, there's a healthy amount of this in some industries with very high costs, equipment use beyond manufacturer obsolescence, and in hobby circles with technical enthusiasts. But not generic devices for the general population.

At my day job, we've replaced and re-engineered controllers in industrial laser cutters, CNCs, welders, robots, and similar equipment. There are replacement control boards for hobbyist stuff like pinball machines, motorcycles, retro computers, and retro game consoles.

But as evidenced by the fact that people are buying shitty cloud-only IoT devices, neither the interest nor the capacity to do this is common.

If smart devices were required to have standard pinouts that were arduino or raspberry Pi compatible, that would make me so happy.

I think this would need to be enabled by regulation that forced the original manufacturers to make their products open. Hopefully we'll get that eventually.

I wonder if we could just make this kind of thing illegal so companies can't get away with it anymore.

I feel like websites like https://www.tindie.com could definitely fill that gap. It's like an Etsy + Hackaday where people sell different levels of hardware etc.

Probably could never make that kind of thing work at scale, but maybe as something within the maker community, perhaps adjacent to the world of 3d printing, Arduino, and RPi.

These do exist for a number of devices. There's actually a number of options for things like alarm systems

One might argue that the market itself becomes "stupid" (stops accurately indicating value) when people have so much money that they stop caring about how they spend it.

I don't think the people buying the bed are stupid.

The collective mass of people who buy these "IoT" devices that (1) don't actually need to use Internet-hosted services to function, (2) don't actually need a subscription for their business model to work _except_ for having been unnecessarily tied to an Internet-hosted service, and (3) will fail to function when the Internet-hosted service is gone do not understand the ramifications of the buying decisions they're making.

They're enabling these awful companies and business models. They're making the world worse by buying this soon-to-be e-waste garbage.

Stupid is a bad word. Let's say ignorant, instead. They don't even know what they don't even know. Our asinine industry normalizes these practices because profit.

I think computers have tremendous power to make life better for humanity. I think that can happen without being contingent on this kind of business model.

The bed is an egregious example. There are certainly other lower-priced products that still have this kind of stupid unnecessary "tie" to Internet-hosted services and subscriptions.

> One thing SaaS has not learned from nonprofits with longevity...

I think SaaS has eschewed strategies for longevitiy because it's contrary to the market's "wisdom" that for-profit companies must have sustained high-rate growth.

If they sell one a month for $2000 that would be enough to keep the lights on with a sensible backend setup.

Step two is to stop pretending the market isn't a kakistocracy.

We were spoiled back then. Creeps and weirdos were relatively endearing.

Yeah, in hindsight, the black turtlenecks everywhere were the good ol days.

What I don't understand is things like:

    - What's required to justify this cost?
    - How many features and updates does the app require?
    - What could the ongoing server costs be?
    - How many people maintain the software?

Plus, these things are only piping out data when they're in use, right? So... Only 1/3 of the day, if that.

Then the feature set, who knows. Is it just a readout with some fixed controls for the firmware in the eight sleep?

How is that justifying $20? Every single month?

I know software (especially when hardware is involved) can be more complicated and demanding than it appears on the surface, so these are genuine questions. I'm very open to having bad assumptions here. It just doesn't map to my experiences properly. Especially since the customers pay a premium for the hardware upfront.

I guess if customers are willing to pay, it's fair game.

Do you have the same reasoning with cigarettes? $10 every day is a small price to pay to avoid having to stop smoking.

in a way, yes. 20$/month to marginally improve sleep efficiency can be worth it, especially when you have high energy expenditure and need to be able to keep up.

on the other hand, paying 20$/month for the right to use the bed, that your purchased at 2000$ cost is a ripoff.

sleeping isn't costly, has never been, yet a company is trying to enforce it and i can see how it doesn't go well with most people.

How much can this help?

I think that's just the price for the cover. You still need to supply your expensive mattress.

It's not actually a bed, it's a mattress cover. They are willing to sell you a mattress with it if you want, but the product itself is designed to go over your existing mattress. That said, good-quality beds cost money!

A $2000 bed (incl. mattress) is not that extraordinarily expensive.

The baseline for mattresses in the US is upwards of $500 according to Costco. If you want a bigger, higher quality regular mattress you get into the neighborhood of $1000. If you want one made with more exotic materials or you want to throw in something like a boxspring or a frame for a bed that sleeps two, you can approach $2000.

> Weight loss. Working out.

Well, working out will help with weight loss and will have a lot of other beneficial effects in the long run.

> FWIW, I've done/do all of these. They work, and they are work.

But you already know that.

Geez. I had this idea myself a long time ago. Glad to see it's a real thing, good on them for making it!

If she hasn't started taking progesterone and estrogen, I recommend she talk to a doctor about doing that. Good luck, it's hard on both of you and I hope it gets better soon.

Yes, my wife would recommend it without reservations.

There's also a cold water circulator, useful for icing a painful limb etc. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09VRJ153X

Not intrusive at all, I hope your friend can find some relief. I hope she can find strength and joy in life.

Could you please let me know who the "mattress guy" is?

I’m in the market for one. I want a cool sleep in the summer with fresh air (not recycled AC air). I haven’t found one with good reviews and also no required spyware unfortunately. So AC plus humidifier is needed, but I still sweat on the parts of my body in contact with the mattress no matter how much I crank the AC in the middle of Aug.

I mean when someone says they are chilling in bed, they don't want to be lying.

You don't prefer a cool bed?